Wet season is time to give landscape a breather

Show your landscape plants how much you appreciate them by giving them a precious yet inexpensive gift — air. Roots, like leaves, need oxygen to grow, but they cannot get enough if the soil they are growing in is saturated with water. Without air, roots suffocate or succumb to disease.

Water ponding for more than a few hours will damage roots. Check your landscape for standing water after a good rain and take corrective measures to drain wet areas. If you use irrigation basins, remove a portion of the surrounding soil berm so water will not be trapped during winter. Also, check mulch around trees and shrubs and make sure it is pulled back at least a foot from the trunk so the plant’s bark and root crown will dry faster.

If you’re still watering landscape plants the same as last summer, they may be getting too much water now. Most plants only need about a third the amount of water in winter as they need in summer. Resetting your controller to apply the correct amount of water will help keep your plants healthy.

If you are not sure how long to run your sprinkler or drip system, you can find out easily online with the Be Water Wise calculator www.bewaterwise.com/calculator.html. You can get a schedule showing how long to water each month of the year. All you have to do is enter your ZIP code and answer a few questions on your type of plants, soil and watering system.

If your controller does not automatically adjust for seasonal change, write a note on your calendar to manually change the time setting in spring and again in fall. To save more water, turn your controller off when a storm is expected or, if you forget, after a good rain (more than ½ inch).

Vincent Lazaneo is an urban horticulture adviser emeritus with the University of California Cooperative Extension. Send questions for “Plants & Pests” to homeandgarden@utsandiego.com